Robert Woods
Landowner

Day 5: "Do 4 Self" Freedom Requires Unity

Okay, We have been here over 400 years. Ever since the first President was elected to run this country, the people have been disappointed. By now it is obvious to us that begging the politicians to give us jobs, justice and equality is just not gonna happen. Doing the same thing over and over trying to get results is CRAZY!.

I have known quite sometime that I should prepare myself to be a free woman and that it would be a time when there would be NO JOBS. I should have saved up my money. Purchased gold. Land, but I did not.

In 1994 blacks began moving out of DC to what they believed was a better life in the Suburbs of Prince Georges County Maryland. A lot of these families could not really afford these huge homes in the suburbs, but were so deseperate to have the American Dream. My parents were a part of this group. 

After recognizing that they had made a mistake to believe that a life spent working over 80 hours to try an pay a mortgage that would take half of their lifetime to pay off, they came up with a plan for economic freedom.

Give up the fancy home and purchase land! Teach our children the importance of land ownership. Teach them how to make something out of nothing. Teach them how to pull their resources together. Teach them that this would require major sacrifice, loss of material things, loss of comfort and even loss of respect from your own people. My parents dream was that all of their children would live on this land and poole their resources together. With four men and five women all working in the system making at least $12/hour. The Money would be used to finance our freedom, build, build, build.  This plan failed.

Robert Woods Jr.
Landowner putting in floor at home

WHY did it fail? ....100% Niggaism!  Although my parents always taught us the importance of "Do 4 Self" by the time they actually implemented the plan, We were adults. already caught up in selfishness, believing that 10 grown ass adults in a one room shack was ridiculous. So we abandoned our parents and opted to get our own apartments. That was in 1994- Over 13 years ago. I dont have to tell you how much money in rent we have paid since then. What about how much money we spent on utilily bills,food electricity. Lets take a look at the basics needed just to survive. We will not even include the essentials, just the basics for one family, lets say the family has 2 children and lets take the cheapest apartment we can find.

Rent: $12,000 a year($1,000 a month)

Utilities:$1,200 a year($100 a month)

Food:$3,600 a month($300 a month)

Total:16,800 x 5 =  $84,000 x 13 = 1,092,000

Just to remind you, I have calculated only the Basic Cost of Living for five families over a 13 year period. $1,092,000!    What if we learned from our Mexican brothers and Sisters and lived together and pooled our resources together??? We would be well on our way to FREEDOM! The worst part is that many African American people still have faith in the American dream, the fancy car, huge house. All these things depreciate in value and what you end up with in the very end is a old house and a old car.  This is not smooth at all. When you think about what you could have: Your own land, your own mini-country that produces food, that creates income, Its paid for, and each year it increases in value, it will keep giving and will provide for your children their children and generations to come. It will work for you even when you are dead and gone. It is what God intended for us. He says: "There was no man to til the ground", he tells us "Multiply thy seed" and what do we do. Go to work for 40 years of our life only to be told that our homes are worth half of what we paid for. We work to be laid off and left with not even half of the money it takes to survive....I could go on and on. But I got to much damn work to do tryna get out of this shit I put my own self into.......I refuse to make the same mistake twice. I am working for a black owned franchise, making not so much money. What I do with that money while its still any good will determine the well being of future generations to come..........ITS TIME! "Do 4 Self"